Pedro Seiler – Class of 1996

Pedro Seiler, Class of 1996, is a cultural producer, founding partner of Queremos! (which has brought to Rio and other cities in Brazil several concerts and shows in the last 9 years, apart from the Queremos! Festival). He worked at Biscoito Fino Records, produced national tours of several artists such as Maria Bethania, Simone and Zelia Duncan, in addition to the Chico Buarque Chico Bastidas project. He curates and conducts music for various events and festivals such as the Paraense Invasion, Bahia Invasion, Sai da Rede, Rio Occupation (London), Open Air, Rider Weekends and the Experimente (Multishow) program. He is part of the Super Juri of the Multishow Prize and the Latin Grammy Academy. Here is a bit more about Pedro Seiler:

1- Tell us about your path after school, college and professional life – What prompted you to seek a project like “Queremos”?After school I went to university at PUC Rio, for Business Administration. Throughout the entire course I did internships in different areas such as Record Label, Trade, E commerce and Real Estate. Later on I did a Post-Graduation at FGV in Entertainment Executive Production.

From 2002 to 2007 I was executive producer at Biscoito Fino record label. There, I was able to work with the most important artists in Brazil and also began doing some tours with them. Maria Bethania, Chico Buarque, Mart’nália, João Donato, Paulo Moura, Casuarina, Simone are some examples.

In 2007 I decided to start my own company and became a freelancer working on musical direction, curation of events, content for TV shows (like Experimente), soundtracks and also creating new events such as Invasão Paraense, Invasão Baiana, Sai da Rede, etc.

In 2010 Queremos! was born and the project goes on until today. It started very informally as an idea between friends but quickly turned into a business.

2- What are the challenges and expectations with this project?
It is very difficult to have a company in Brazil, it is extremely difficult to work with culture and entertainment in Brazil and besides that we have the currency variation. So I can say it is very very tough.

But we are very happy to have helped change the cultural aspect of the city and then expand it do other cities, building a platform and building a festival.

3- Where and how can you say that your school life at TBS may have helped in your profession? What would say are the differential of your academic formation? I clearly see the formation of the school helping out in several aspects of the job. Communication, general knowledge, logical thinking, diplomacy, leadership…

Most of my contacts are in English also.

4- Is there a moment in your life at TBS that has been significant and that you can say that it qualified you to be who you are today?
It is hard to choose a single moment of my academic life. For me, it is more like the time I spent in school that helped me to become who I am and gave me the tools to carry on.

5- Tell us about what you aim as human being, your goals and projects for the next 5 to 10 years? For the next years I really hope we can make the world a better place and we can pass through this terrible wave we are seeing of conservative attitudes. Help to fight prejudice, racism, transform the city we live in and do that by culture would be a great way.